This Week in Weird, July 16

In this week's edition, a thief thinks he's stealing cash, but it's just a bag of keys, a woman released from jail is arrested again before making it out of the building and more.

Litter breaks windshield, injures driver

NEOSHO, Mo. - John Uranga is counting his lucky stars after a freak accident on Sunday night.

“About 6:30 p.m. Sunday, I went to pick up my boy and ... I saw (someone) throw something out of a car,” Uranga said. “And the next thing that I knew it went through the windshield and (the glass) shattered all over me and cut me on the forehead, on both sides of my face.”

The object in question was a paper cup that was discarded by a driver in a car going the opposite direction.

“It was a medium paper cup, full of ice,” he said. “So when you are going at a certain amount of (speed) on both vehicles, that is like a missile. And the heat was just right and I know that is tempered glass, but it can be broke.”

Uranga – driving an Astro van – said he was traveling about 50 mph when the accident happened.

Uranga is doing fine and credits his sunglasses for saving his eyesight.

Woman pulls jail fire alarm after being released

CANTON, Ohio - A woman released from jail after a judge suspended her sentence for a minor offense didn’t make it out of the building before she was arrested again, accused of pulling the jail lobby fire alarm.

The 46-year-old woman had been arrested originally on a criminal trespassing charge on July 5, Stark County Court records said. She was released the next day on her own recognizance but failed to appear for her hearing and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Court records show she was arrested on Sunday.

On Monday morning, Canton Municipal Court Judge John Poulos found her guilty of the criminal trespassing charge, which was a fourth-degree misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence upon conviction of up to 30 days in jail and a $250 fine.

Court records show she pleaded “no contest” to the charge and Poulos sentenced her to the full 30 days in jail and ordered her to pay court costs. He then suspended all but the six days that she had already served on the condition of “good behavior for two years,” the court records show.

Jail records show she was being released from the jail when at 6:03 p.m. she was arrested again.

The jail records said she pulled the fire alarm in the new front lobby of the jail.

She was booked back into the jail on charges of making false alarms and inducing panic. Both are first-degree misdemeanor charges that are punishable upon conviction by a maximum sentence of up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Police said a man brandished a firearm, made off with what he thought was a bag of money and escaped in a car driven by a second man.

According to the gas station owner, the robber hit him one time on the head with the butt of his handgun before making off with a bag full of old keys, thinking it contained cash.

Taunton and State Police are searching for both suspects.

Connecticut man spends two days trapped in storm drain after fleeing from police

MANSFIELD, Mass. - A man who dodged police last month allegedly spent two days below ground eluding authorities, according to Mansfield police.

Officers were called to the Chauncy Street Stop & Shop on June 25 after receiving a report of an unwanted patron who appeared intoxicated.

Upon his arrival, Officer Roy Bain was directed to a man covered in cuts and scrapes sitting on a curb next to the supermarket gas station. The man’s T-shirt was dirty and appeared to have dried blood on the sleeves, according to Bain.

“The guy was a complete mess,” Bain said. “Every part of his body not covered by clothes was covered in scrapes, scabs or blood.”

According to police reports, supermarket employees first encountered the man a day earlier when he was discovered in a storm drain on the property.

The man, identified as Barton Gray, 31, of Ivoryton, Conn., told Bain he had been in town for the Phish concert at the Comcast Center on June 22 and had been staying at a Red Roof Inn with two friends. He said he had become stranded in town and was at the supermarket waiting for someone to wire him some money.

After he was questioned further, Gray began to recount a strange tale.

He told Bain he had been trapped underground in the storm drain system for several days. He said he could not turn around in the storm drain due to the small size of the pipes, which are roughly 2 feet in diameter, according to Bain.

Bain later related the bizarre encounter to Mansfield court prosecutor, Kenneth Wright, who asked the officer what type of clothes Gray had been wearing.

After describing the clothes the man had been dressed in, Bain was informed that Gray matched the description of a suspect who had been involved in an altercation with Officer Jeffrey Danner two days earlier.

While on patrol on June 23, Danner came across a crowd of about 30 people with balloons gathered in the rear parking lot of the Red Roof Inn, according to an earlier police report. During the incident, which occurred around 1:55 a.m., the officer noticed a man in his mid-20s filling balloons and collecting money from people, leading him to conclude the balloons were being filled with nitrous oxide (more commonly known as laughing gas) or some other drug.

When he saw Danner approach, the man who had been filling the balloons ran away and allegedly threw rocks, change, balloons and cans at the officer.

According to police reports, the man was able to scale a fence and escape into the woods adjacent to the hotel.

A barrier was set up along the nearby roadways while several officers scoured the area for the man. Despite their attempts, police were unable to locate the suspect.

“When he disappeared, he disappeared,” Bain said.

It was only after hearing the bizarre tale of the man who had been trapped in the storm drain that police were able to determine how the man had eluded police.

Lightning destroys golf carts – again

NEOSHO, Mo. - The Neosho Municipal Golf Course lost more golf carts in a round of storms on Monday night.

A lightning strike fried 53 of the golf course’s 70 carts.

This after a lightning strike in May of this year also damaged 53 carts at the course.

Justin Beck, club pro at the golf course, estimated the damage to the carts in May at about $33,000.

Beck said the carts were charging at the time of the storm, and it is possible a surge came through the electrical lines and caused the damage.